Which of the following is correct?
I, too, have seen that movie.
or:
I too, have seen that movie.
The former seems correct to me from examining the inflection with which I would say it, but it looks a little awkward.
asked Dec 12, 2012 at 16:59
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Neither. The "standard" version would have no commas at all. Commas are there to indicate pauses in speech, which wouldn't exist in such an utterance.– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 12, 2012 at 18:36
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@FumbleFingers Wouldn't there be a pause after "too"?– Asad SaeeduddinCommented Dec 12, 2012 at 18:39
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Not in normal English speech, no. I guess you could "artificially" introduce a pause, but I don't think you could justify using a comma to convey that in the written form. You'd need to use a bit of a workaround - for example, "I too", said John, "have seen that movie"– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 12, 2012 at 18:45
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2@tchrist: You speak from the American perspective, where commas are often used because some rule of grammar says they have to be. As it says here about the Harry Potter books, The American edition has quite a few more commas than the British.– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 12, 2012 at 21:59
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2@FumbleFingers - Perhaps it's also an Americanism, but there would be a pause in speech in that utterance (in my experience), which is why the comma there makes perfect sense.– LynnCommented Oct 1, 2014 at 23:54
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1 Answer
You can write both
I too have seen that movie.
and
I, too, have seen that movie.
You can even write
I have seen that movie too.
and
I have seen that movie, too.
You cannot, however, write
I too, have seen that movie.
When an adverb is in the middle of the sentence, you have to either put two commas around it, or you have to avoid commas altogether. When you put the commas in, you indicate that that the adverb is a disjunct. The decision whether it is a disjunct or not is sometimes up to you. You can make it an adjunct (the opposite of disjunct) when you want to emphasize the connection of the adverb to the words around it, or a disjunct when you want to emphasize that it applies to the whole clause.
In many forms of writing you should probably avoid an overly "flowery" style. Of all the ways to write the sentence in question, in my opinion the
I have seen that movie too.
version is the most casual and closest to what one would say in most day to day situations. You should use the other forms if the situations calls for it. A fine nuance may be important when you write a novel, for example.
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I think that the casual one requires a comma before "too" in order to convey the same meaning as the rest.– V13Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 12:04